The 2003 social welfare budget package included provision for increases in the main personal rates of weekly payments ranging from 5.1% to 7.6% as well as similar percentage increases in the weekly rate of qualified adult allowances. In particular, increases ranging from 5.7% to 7.6% were provided for recipients of old age and widow-widower's pensions. It is now projected by the Department of Finance that prices will increase by an average of 3.6% in 2003 as a whole. I particularly welcome the recent decline in the annual rate to 2.9% in September of this year. Consequently, the social welfare increases allocated in budget 2003 have been well ahead of the projected inflation rate. Social welfare spending rose by over €3.5 billion between 1997 and 2002. An additional €833 million in social welfare spending is provided for during this year and this will bring the projected level of annual spending to over €10 billion.